Farley Cemetery - Colrain - catamount

 

Way out in the woods in Colrain there is a small cemetery called Farley. There are 10 or so old stones, notably those of Benjamin and Joel, seen here.  The stone to the left of Benjamin has lost its inscription, but it may be Mary Farley (see notes below)..  Ed Gregory provided these pictures from a site visit he made in 2012. 

Sarah and I tried to find the cemetery in mid-August 2025, without success.  
We had 2 maps.  I scaled this 1961 map's position onto a GPS map using Gaia on my iphone, and we thrashed our way through tall grass in an area that was logged 5-10 years ago, and came to the Mass State Forest boundary... wandered around 3-4 acres ..no luck.

The second map looks different (below)  after our failed search Saturday I want to go back and go further up South Catamount Road from our reference point, cellarhole 13, where Benjamin and Mary Farley lived ca 1820. The cemetery is site 15.  
Ed Gregory has been to the  
Ed Gregory has been to the cemetery, but does not recall any landmarks or directions we might use.
But he did take the picture above, and these following.
 There is a single stone wall adjoining the cemetery on the east side - perhaps the ancient Farley property boundary.


Below is the view  after crossing that wall.

 
This next pic shows the cluster of 3 prominent  graves 
Benjamin's gravestone is hard to read so a rough  photoshop adjustment was done.



The stone behind and to the right of Benjamin in this pic is Joel Farley.
 

Thanks to Ed Gregory for these pictures.
Thanks are also due to Katherine Cram who typed up these inscriptions made in 1923 -  102 years ago!

Katherine Cram was the Colrain Town Librarian and an avid and serious historian,. These epitaphs she prepared are preserved in a manuscript book at the Griswold Memorial Library, (Town library)
Below is her introduction to the Farley Cemetery inscriptions
"

"briars and wood plants" kept Katherine away ca 1923, but now, 2025, the cemetery is in a mature forest.
Ed Gregory reports that getting to the site today may  require some bushwhacking, but his pictures tell us that the cemetery itself is briar-free 100 years after Katherine's visit.


 

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